Finn, Annie and an unwilling Reina approached the two story house. The ground floor was made out of stone and the other two from wood. Squished between two other buildings, it was taller than both.

All three teens stopped in front of the door.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” muttered Finn.

“Yes, the mana here’s quite unusual,” said Annie.

While the two gave each other a look of confusion, Reina started chattering her teeth.

“I really think we should go back. Annie, can we…”

Finn pushed the door and entered. The whole first floor was a single, dark room. The only furniture was a table top with broken legs all around it, and four crushed chairs spread out on the ground. At the very end of the room, there was a rope ladder which led to the second floor.

“Let’s go.” Finn took the lead. He walked towards the ladder, but at the half-way point, he suddenly stopped. Not only that, but the teen grimaced and fell on one knee.

“Stay back! Something is pushing me to the floor. There’s a spell of some kind from this point forward.”

“A spell?” Annie held in a smile. She extended her palm above the kneeling Finn, and an unknown force pushed it down, right onto the boy’s head. “Fascinating.”

“That freaking hurt!”

“Are you calling her heavy? Cause my Annie is…”

“Shush.” Annie covered the girl’s mouth and pulled her close with the strength of an ox. She then extended her hand again, this time at a spot towards Finn’s left. Again, something pushed it down.

“Hmm, I’ll figure it out in about five minutes.” Annie sat down and pushed her hand close to the floor, so the force would affect her continuously. “Reina, help me out.”

“Can you cancel the spell?” asked Finn.

“Not from here, but I think I can get accustomed to it.”

While the girls inspected the array, Finn struggled to get up. It was like he was deep underwater, and the pressure was immense.

“Use your warrior’s breath,” said Annie.

“I am,” Finn frowned. The girl’s eyes went wide, but she said nothing. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure something out.”

Since he could not push himself up with brute strength, Finn stopped resisting and tried to feel the energy pushing him down like the girls.

‘It’s not air, so maybe gravity magic? Or like the pressure Mr. Griffin gave off.’

Six minutes later, there was a breakthrough. Annie managed to lift her hand off the ground slightly, and from there, it took just another five before she could walk inside the gravity field with relative ease. At around the same time, one of Reina’s bracelets lit up and she skipped her way through.

“I didn’t know your ring could cancel magical arrays. Is it custom made?” she asked.

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Annie looked at the blue ring she had received from Madam Isabella, the token proving that she was an academy student and smiled “S-sure. Let’s grab Finn.”

“No.” The boy gritted his teeth. “I can do this.”

True to his word, he did manage to remove his knee off the ground. It was barely by an inch, but there was definite movement.

“Classes start at eight, muscle-brain. We don’t have time to wait for you to snail your way through.”

Reina chuckled while making a walking motion with her fingers, when Annie placed her hand on her head.

“We’ll wait.”

Almost 20 minutes later, the boy finally managed to stand on two feet. After another 10 minutes, he took his first step.

“Are your muscles growing?” asked Reina. “How?”

“He… He’s in his growth spurt,” Annie averted her eyes. “He grows really fast.”

While her cheeks turned red in realization, Finn slowly lifted his arm. ‘I haven’t used the warrior’s breath in a while, and now I can barely use it at all. But… I can feel it… This pressure, I can let it flow through me.’

The less he resisted, the easier it was to move. Whatever this magic was, Finn felt it pass through his body, guided by his veins from the top of his head all the way towards the soles of his feet.

“Let’s go,” he said as he walked towards the rope ladder at a snail’s pace.

“Don’t you want to stay a bit longer?” asked Annie.

“No. We can return after we catch him.”

Since Finn was moving in slow motion, Annie took the lead and went up. Then, with a concerned expression, she helped Reina climb up too. The little girl immediately started screaming.

“What’s wrong?” asked Finn.

“We’re safe, you’ll see.”

Up in the attic, a certain someone heard the girl’s scream and activated one of the many blue crystal rings. A tiny image was formed, and while squinting, Nunac saw what was happening on the second floor.

This floor’s proportions were weird. It looked unusually long and somehow wide in certain places. There were paintings on the walls which twisted along with the walls, being tremendously elongated in some spots and squeezed in others.

Finally, Finn managed to climb to the top of the ladder, and he sighed in relief as the pressure disappeared. When he lifted his head, this relief went away.

There were bodies strewn across the floor, placed together in neat little piles. Some were adults, while many were children. There were academy students among them, and Finn even saw five of his colleagues gathered in the pile closest to the entrance.

“Is this how you get your gold?” he muttered.

“How else?” Nunac’s voice echoed through the chamber. “I assure you the pay is worth it.”

Finn walked towards his former colleagues with his fists clenched. However, no matter how many steps he took, he couldn’t reach them. It was like the room stretched endlessly, keeping him away from everything else.

“Ha, you’re walking in place,” Reina giggled. “Why did you even take the lead, pretty boy? This is a job for us women.”

After rolling her sleeves and pumping her chest, Reina confidently walked forward until she too got stuck in the spatial distortion. She then waited proudly for her bracelet to activate. Annie smiled at her antics and followed suit. After about 10 seconds inside the unusual space, she concluded “It’s similar yet different from the room below. The solution is probably the same though.”

Finn nodded and closed his eyes.

“The solution was for you three to not enter in the first place!” Nunac clenched his fist and smacked the handle of his chair. “Do you really think I’m just going to let you catch me?”

Suddenly, something moved in front of Finn. One of the bodies of his classmates raised an arm and started pushing himself out of the pile. The other corpses too began stretching their limbs and slowly getting to their feet. Nunac’s laughter could be heard from above.

“I bet you haven’t learned this at the academy, did you? I’ll give you a hint: There was one array on the first floor, and there are three in the attic, not that you’ll ever get there in one piece.

If you don’t mind, just die quietly. The outside world can’t hear your screams, but I sure freaking can!”

With a flick of his index finger, Nunac ordered the zombies to attack. Then, with another flick, he ordered them to attack Reina first.